Hippodrome Cinema hopes for digital kickstart

Thursday

Aug 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The digital conversion also is affecting the Ocala Drive-In.

By Beatrice DupuyCorrespondent

Thad Walsh has spent six years preparing films on a vintage film projector for moviegoers as the Hippodrome Cinema projectionist in downtown Gainesville. With the movie industry going digital, however, Walsh’s job is about to join a film revolution.Starting in 2014 — the transition date movie studios have announced to switch from 35 mm film to a completely digital system — the Hippodrome Cinema will have to retire its projector and switch to an all-digital format costing $40,000.While the change has left thousands of movie theaters scrambling to find funds — including the Ocala Drive-In — the Hippodrome Cinema has turned to the crowd-funding website, Kickstarter, to raise part of the funds. Founded in 2009, Kickstarter allows users to financially back creative projects.“Kickstarter is such a blessing to independent art houses like The Hipp,” said Rocky Draud, managing director for the Hippodrome. “This is a huge, unplanned, unbudgeted expense for theaters.”To augment a $25,000 state grant, the Hippodrome launched a Kickstarter campaign on July 22 to raise $15,000 by Sept. 20. The entire $40,000 will pay for an all-digital format that includes a new lens, projector, server and digital sound amplifier.Any additional funds that surpass the $15,000 amount made on Kickstarter will be used to remodel the projector booth and cinema, and provide new chairs with cup holders. The digital conversion also is affecting the Ocala Drive-In. But instead of a Kickstarter campaign, the historic venue on South Pine Avenue is vying to be one of the five drive-in theaters American Honda Motor Company will help convert after an online voting campaign. There is a substantial grass roots Facebook campaign underway to garner enough votes for the Ocala Drive-In. As for the Hippodrome Cinema, director Alisha Kinman said she can’t keep off the Kickstarter website.“I feel like we’re constantly checking the website to see if we made a dollar more,” she said. “Every dollar counts in this campaign.”(To view the Hipp’s Kickstarter page, see www.kickstarter.com and type “Hippodrome Theatre” in the search bar).Kickstarter project backers receive rewards in exchange for their donations. Depending on the size of the donations for the Hippodrome campaign, Kickstarter backers can receive cinema-related incentives ranging from stickers to their own private screening.The change will mark the end of an era for the Hippodrome Cinema, which has been operating since 1982.But going digital will be a good change, Draud said.“The catalog of movie titles that will become available to us will expand,” he said. “We will be able to offer a lot more to our community here.”The 35 mm film did come with obstacles for the cinema. From time to time, the cinema would receive films with scratches.“It was amazing that some of the prints we got in the worst condition were some of the films that came to us with the biggest name recognition,” Shirley Lasseter, former Hippodrome Cinema director, said.Going digital would overall cut costs for the cinema because the theater would no longer have to pay for expensive film shipping costs, Draud said.